<p>Do you guys know anyone who you thought for SURE was going to get into a school and then was rejected?</p>
<p>At our school (in VA), the valedictorian didn't get into UVA yet our salutatorian did. The former padded her GPA with easy Honors classes while the latter took a bunch of hard APs. Not really a surprise but it's something worth mentioning. </p>
<p>Surprising acceptances are common. Surprising rejections are rare. I do not know anyone who was rejected from a school that I thought would for sure accept him/her. However, a few have accused me for being biased in what I consider to be surprising. Some have even told me that I am delusional in thinking that my own rejections/waitlists are perfectly normal. I find it strange that they would think that because I had a low GPA. You can look at my old posts if you are interested in my stats and results.</p>
<p>UVA is selective. If your school’s valedictorian only had a high GPA, I see nothing strange with her rejection.</p>
<p>Yea the UVA rejection doesn’t seem that surprising to me either. Last year, the valedictorian at my school applied to all ivy leagues and got rejected from all of them. Not that surprising, but I thought it was worth mentioning as well.</p>
<p>You can never know everything that goes into a given student’s application, nor what the competition in the applicant pool looks like. It is fruitless to even think about or worry about someone else’s acceptances or rejections. You have no idea what their recommendations really say, what kind of activities they may engage in outside of school, whether they have any disciplinary black marks on their record, whether they have some ethnic background that makes them a URM that may not be obvious to you, what their test scores actually are, how their essays are, whether their financial situation affected admissions in colleges that aren’t need blind, or whether they knocked it out of the park or said something incredibly stupid in an interview. We are coming into that season of sour grapes on CC where students complain that someone else they think had lower stats gets in someplace, they didn’t get in, and they think they are more deserving. It is a waste of energy to speculate, and you can never know all the details of a given applicant’s situation.</p>
<p>Seems that every April, there are posts by students who are surprised to be rejected from their “safeties”.</p>
<p>But that becomes less surprising when the supposed “safety” is a school that considers “level of applicant’s interest” and the student did not show any beyond applying, or it has different levels of admission selectivity by division or major, and the student applied for one of the more competitive and selective divisions or majors.</p>
<p>I know of one person who was accepted at multiple elite schools, and was asked to fill out a form to be interviewed for a Regents Scholarship at UCSC. After UCSC subsequently rejected him, the shocked mom wrote and asked why (he was home-schooled, and that may have played into it), saying he was planning to attend <elite school="">, they wrote back saying they are happy that the student had found alternate suitable placement. He never interviewed for the Regent’s or anything like that, it was purely based on application materials- and he had acceptances with Regents offers at other UCs.</elite></p>
<p>Yeah, it does seem as if some people want to go on ego trips. Nobody but the most self-absorbed would think that just because hot boy/girl A wants them that less-hot boy/girl B should automatically want them as well, but some folks feel like they’re entitled to acceptances from certain colleges.</p>
<p>In any case, no rejection from a school that considers applications holistically would shock me. Only a rejection from a school that admits by formula who rejects an applicant who clearly meets all criteria.</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan
The way I see it is that if hot boy/girl A wants him/her, but less-hot boy/girl B does not want him/her, it is usually not a surprising rejection from B, but it could possibly be a surprising acceptance from A. However, I would like to point out that your argument is a false analogy. It is not possible to compare people and schools because they are very different things.</p>
<p>Although I have not yet seen a truly surprising rejection, there are theoretical rejections that could shock me, and I do believe that there are certain extremely gifted students who should feel that they are entitled to acceptances from certain colleges. If a student has perfect grades in difficult classes, perfect test scores, good leadership positions in good ECs, and international level academic awards (such as IMO gold medal) but is rejected from a school like UC Santa Cruz, I would be greatly shocked. Fortunately, I do not think anything like that has happened yet.</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco, I know things on these boards could be fabricated. This story doesn’t really matter one way or another; nothing is hinging on it. I know the people personally, or may not believe it either. It did happen (believe it or not). In this case the amusing thing is not so much that he was rejected (clearly the algorithm did not work well on homeschooling credentials), but that he was invited to be considered as a Regent’s Scholar for that campus, so there must have been competing algorithms.</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool
I am in no way saying that your story is fabricated. I have never assumed anything on the forums to be fabricated (unless if previous posts contradict later posts, or if the poster later admits to the fabrication), but I am aware that it is possible for people to fabricate their stats. When I read your post, what I saw was that you provided a possible explanation for the rejection (homeschooling); therefore, the rejection was not unreasonable. My previous post was not even a response to your post, but a response to PurpleTitan’s false analogy.</p>
<p>Anyways, I have a 2300 SAT score and a 3.66 unweighted, 4.29 weighted, 4.00 capped UC GPA. I was rejected by UCB, UCLA, UCSD, and Cal Poly SLO and waitlisted by UCD and UCI. I do not consider these to be surprising rejections/waitlists because my GPA was below average, but my rejections/waitlists may be “scary” to some because they show that having a high SAT score does not make up for a low GPA.</p>
<p>No Way! I actually do see that as anomalous. Between the Holistic review and the dual score/gpa (with your weighted, you likely had some good AP scores, too!) admissions criteria, I am very surprised. Your story makes no sense to me. With a 2300, you very well should have been accepted to one of those 5 UC’s + CPSLO. I hope you went someplace that was a good fit for you, and had a great experience!</p>
<p>“there are certain extremely gifted students who should feel that they are entitled”</p>
<p>That is probably the core of why someone would be shocked by a rejection. Feelings of entitlement often leads to some bruised egos.</p>
<p>two words: tufts syndrome</p>
<p>Friend’s daughter accepted to Harvard and rejected by her 1st choice Duke.</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco:</p>
<p>Actually, if you realize that organizations (including schools) are actually a lot like people (because, surprise, they’re run by human beings), you’ll get farther in life (so no, it’s not a false analogy). Also, not feeling entitled will also help in that regard.</p>
<p>Adcoms are in the job of putting together the best possible student body they can by the criteria that they deem important. They are not in the job of boosting egos. Giving acceptances to kids who they deem to be almost zero probabilities to accept does not help them put together the best student body that they can.</p>
<p>Also, it’s pretty common knowledge that the UCs weigh GPA/class rank pretty heavily. That doesn’t mean that all good schools weigh them more heavily than test scores, however. You should have better luck at those schools (though maybe not if you show a sense of entitlement).</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan
There exist competitions (olympiads and science fair competitions) that allow students to prove that they are the best in their country or even in the world among their peers in a particular academic subject. I see nothing wrong with these people feeling entitled to being accepted by certain schools that are obviously safeties for them.</p>
<p>You mentioned that adcoms are in the job of putting together the best possible student body. This is the difference between colleges and romantic relationships. Some people have unhealthy relationships with their partner(s) who are definitely not the “best” for them.</p>
<p>Also, when I mentioned that a high SAT score does not make up for a low GPA, I was referring to the UCs (specifically UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, and UCI). I should have been more specific.</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool
I took IB classes (including HL Math).</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco Holy cow! Those are shocking rejections. 4.0 UC GPA is not even a low GPA. You must have had exceptionally weak ECs, you were a very competitive student academically for those schools no matter how you slice it. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What major or division did you apply to? Some majors or divisions may be more selective than the school overall, so an applicant who would be admitted to (for example) the College of Letters and Science at some UC may be rejected by the College of Engineering at the same UC. Naviance data that does not subdivide the applicants by major or division (at schools where this affects selectivity) may mislead.</p>
<p>Of course, in holistic admissions readings, if your essay was not something that the readers liked, that could have downgraded your chances relative to your stats.</p>
<p>Intended major:
Civil Engineering for UCD
Computer Science for UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, and CPSLO.</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons why I do not find my results surprising. Also, I was not rejected/waitlisted by all the UCs. The other UCs accepted me.</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco, but the thing is, for a kid who wins those types of competitions, if they don’t actually show any interest in a school that’s below HYPSM (and applied RD), that school can reasonably conclude that that kid will reject them. In that case, why should the school extend an admit to that kid? After all, the school is interested in putting the best class possible, and being rejected by top kids does not help them do that.</p>